Correlates of Psychotropic Polypharmacy in outpatient psychiatric clinics of two military tertiary hospitals in Saudi Arabia

Fares F Alharbi; Samar F Alharbi; Saleh Bin Salih; Khaled Al-Surimi

doi:10.4103/jfcm.JFCM_31_19

Correlates of Psychotropic Polypharmacy in outpatient psychiatric clinics of two military tertiary hospitals in Saudi Arabia

J Family Community Med. 2019 Sep-Dec;26(3):213-220. doi: 10.4103/jfcm.JFCM_31_19.

Authors

Fares F Alharbi^{1

2

3}, Samar F Alharbi⁴, Saleh Bin Salih^{1

2}, Khaled Al-Surimi^{5

6}

Affiliations

¹ King Abdullah International Medical Research Center, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
² College of Medicine, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
³ Ministry of the National Guard Health Affairs, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Department of Pharmacy, King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Department of Health Systems Management, College of Public Health and Health Informatics, King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences, Ministry of the National Guard Health Affairs, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Department of Public Health, School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, London, UK.

Abstract

Background: Polypharmacy is meaningful and clinically justified under certain circumstances. However, the prescription of multiple psychiatric medicines is mostly based on practical experience rather than evidence. The aim of this study was to assess the current practice of and factors associated with the use of polypharmacy among patients attending outpatient psychiatric clinics.

Materials and methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among patients attending outpatient psychiatric clinics in two tertiary care hospitals in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). Patients aged 18 years and above and who were taking any prescription or nonprescription medications were included. Data were collected by face-to-face interviews, followed by a review of electronic medical charts to determine the drugs being taken by patients, and track their current computerized drug prescriptions. Data were analyzed using SPSS statistical software version 21 (Chicago, IL, USA), applying both descriptive and inferential statistical analysis as appropriate.

Results: Of the 401 study participants, 53.6% were aged 25 years or older, and 63.6% were married and > 50% were unemployed. The overall prevalence of polypharmacy was 46.9%. The prevalence of polypharmacy was 67.3% in psychosis, 37.7% in depression, 27.1% in anxiety, 74.1% in bipolar disorders, and 53.6% for patients with two or more disorders, and 42.1% for patients diagnosed with "other" disorders. Overall, there was a significant association between polypharmacy and gender, marital status, and diagnosis of disorder.

Conclusions: Psychotropic polypharmacy is common in outpatient practice. Patients with psychosis and bipolar disorders, especially those aged 25-45 years are exposed to high psychotropic polypharmacy. The concomitant use of large numbers of drugs should be periodically reviewed to improve the quality and safety of psychiatric care.

Keywords: Bipolar disorder; Saudi Arabia; drugs; medication; outpatients; polypharmacy; psychiatry; psychosis.